The road to my wings
Please do not press the "Sign Guestbook" button as this will put an entry into the blog.
Sign Guestbook Back to Jetfighters.dk
| Date | 26-08-2010 |
| Location |  |
| Message | (Thursday 1105) We finished our first academic test and all passed except for two of the Americans. One thing I forgot to mention is that our class is a really big one. We're 56 students, which is very normal here. A new pilot course starts every 14 days so as you can imagine, it's a busy place. At the moment there are 88 courses going on at the base. Not all are pilot courses, of course. Tonight we have some arrangement with all other foreign students at the school (meet and greet kind of thing). There are students from all over the world so it should be fun meeting some of them. Last time we met some Singaporians who did flight school together with some of the Singaporians we met in Canada. It's a small world and the aviation world is REALLY small. I still don't have internet at home but by the looks of it I'll have it by Monday, latest. That's that for now - it's lunch time. /GEA |
| Date | 25-08-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Wednesday 0650) Yesterday and Tuesday we used most of the days on aeromedicine. They use quite alot more energy on the subject here than they did in Canada, except the part about pulling g's of course. Yesterday we also finally got our helmet and vest fitted. Today it's more aeromedicine and then tomorrow we have the final exam in the subject, which will consist of 50 questions. I still don't have internet at home and that's why I don't write too often these days. I should have it by the beginning of this coming week and I can't wait! That's it for now. I'm off to work. /GEA |
| Date | 21-08-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Saturday 2050) I'm in Atlanta, Georgia with GAR and his girlfriend. He wanted to look at some cars and asked me to go with him and help him out with dealing with those street-sharks, also known as car dealers. We didn't get the Audi he was looking for but he got a really nice convertible BMW for a really good price so he's happy indeed. We're spending the night here at a hotel and then tomorrow we plan to visit the CNN news center and Coca Cola museum which both are at a stone's throw away fromour hotel. Then at around noon we'll grab some lunch and head back home to Enterprise, which is about 4 hours drive from here. I must admit that I miss my house already. Yesterday all four of us guys spent most of the afternoon after work at LOD's swimming pool,just relaxing and chilling with a few cold beers. In the evening we ate at a Sushi restaurant and then watched a movie ("Terkel i knibe," if you know it...) with some snacks. That's it for now. It's time for dinner soon even though I'm not really hungry as we had a very late lunch today. /GEA |
| Date | 20-08-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Friday 1050) Yesterday we had our day "off" in order to get some practical stuff done...and we did! My house is finally starting to look like a home and it's starting to feel personal with all the family picture frames on the walls and all - but I still don't have internet and the word is that I won't get any for another week! COM and I went to the mess last night as there's Ladies night and karaoke at the mess every Thursday. If you're wondering how many ladies there were; well, the ratio must have been 20 to 1 or so, so I wouldn't exactly categorize it as a target rich enviroment. It was almost kind of intimidating to be at the mess with a bunch of US Army guys, all huge and muscular and giving us evil looks because we both had an Air Force t-shirt on. But anyway, we met a couple of guys and started talking about flying and everything else and had a good time. But it's not the pilot's mess as we know it. Today we have the first classes of the course. The ones we had so far had been in connection with dunker training and then the English test last Wednesday, which was rediculously easy. Tomorrow GAR, his girlfriend and I plan to go to Atlanta in Georgia for the day. He still hasn't found a car but found some on the internet in Atlanta which he'll check out tomorrow. I need to get of here too so it's a good opportunity to go to a big city and see something other than a military base. It's about a 4 hour drive to there. Should be fun. /GEA |
| Date | 17-08-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Tuesday 2200) Another day on and we got our equipment delivered among other things. The helmet looks like something from the Vietnam war (which it probably is!) No g-suit and mask?? I must be in hell. Afterwards we got our books for the course, but none of them were helicopter type related, which means that we still have to get the aircraft operating manual (AOI), checklists, emergency procedures etc. The books include cavalery and infantry tactics, which isn't surprizing, considering that it's a US Army course, whose job is to directly deliver and support the troops at the battlefield. I took over the van today and moved into my house. I still think the house is huge but I'm already enjoying having such a big house. Tomorrow we have to go to the base medical center to get our "upslip" which is basically a card that indicates that you're medically fit to fly. I still don't have internet at home, which is very annoying. I'd have no problem surviving withou food and water for a while but internet?! So right now I'm sitting at one of my Danish mate's house, "borrowing" some internet. And I'll probably keep doing that every evening until they hook me up. That's it for now. I have a couple of emails to write and then it'll be time to head home and sleep in my new bed for the first time. /GEA |
| Date | 15-08-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Sunday 2135) I got another bunch of stuff done this weekend. I got myself a house, which I'll move into tomorrow. It's really a huge house, no matter what you compare it to. The only thing I didn't get was a swimming pool. I still don't have a car but I'm pretty certain that I'll have a minivan before the end of the day tomorrow. The weather has been terrible. It's still extremely humid and hot and we've had many thunderstorms this weekend. Tomorrow we have more clearing in on the schedule. Then Tuesday we'll get our flight gear, books, checklists etc. and start studying,learning the usual crap by heart. By now we're pretty used to doing this and you actually find yourself getting better at figuring out what things to concentrate your energy on and what things are just "nice to know." That's how I found myself on the Hawk anyway. Even though some of the checklists, emergencies and limitations were really unlogic and nasty, I thought they were easier to learn than on any other aircraft I had flown. On Tuesday we also have an English language test. As you probably know, many nations worldwide send their helicopter student pilots to Fort Rucker to get their wings and not all have the same abilities in the English language. That's it for tonight. I have uploaded a new video from the Hawk. It's about my low level navigation mission. It is about 340Mb in size and you can download it from here: jetfighters.dk/videos/NavSolo.wmv /GEA |
| Date | 12-08-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Thursday 1730) Yesterday we had an easy day so we got a bunch of practical stuff done. I rented a car for a week, we emptied the U-Haul truck at COM's new house, looked at some houses myself, got a cell phone and took a quick look at the base. Today we had our first day at work and it was a good but long one. We did the dunker training, starting with a swimming test at 0530. The training itself was very interesting and lots of fun, and less demanding that I had imagined. I guess being a pilot with some experience you're used to procedures and just switching your brain off and doing things in a mechanical way. I found it very uncomfortbale to be sitting upside down under water with blind goggles on and water rushing through my nose and into my brain (of course it didn't go into my brain but it certainly felt like it did, and I still have water coming out of all my holes in my head...) We finished at about 1630 so it was a long day indeed. Tomorrow we have a bunch of clearing in to do, which means that we'll be given a US military ID card, get a military bank account opened etc. Then in the weekend I have quite alot of things to do, especially Saturday. I need to buy a car and hopefully by Sunday I'll have my house ready to move into and I'll use the day on that and start to settle down. I have a feeling that I'm going to enjoy this course. In any case, I feel privelaged to be getting the opportunity to do both the fighter- and helicopter-pilot courses. /GEA |
| Date | 10-08-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Wednesday) We got to our destination. This morning we drove through the rest of Missouri, then Tennesse and Mississippi and finally to Alabama and we got here at about 1900. We're really tired but that didn't stop us from taking a dip in the pool at the hotel after dinner. Tomorrow we're invited for a brunch with our new boss and afterwards I have to rent a car and find myself a house to rent for the next ten months. I also need to get myself a phone and some internet once I find a house. Then by the looks of it, we start our course on Thursday. The course starts with the dunker training, where, as far as I know, you get strapped into a metal box simulating a helicopter fuselage, which drops into a pool and turns upside down under water, simulating a forced landing into water, where typically helicopters flip inverted shortly after touching the water. If I never update this blog again, I probably drowned... /GEA |
| Date | 09-08-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Tuesday 0045) The last few days have been really hard. Saturday we all had to do a gazillion practical things in order to move out of Moose Jaw Sunday morning in time. So we drove Sunday morning, heading South to Alabama. We made it through customs without any problems whatsoever. The US border officers really respect military orders and as long as you have the right papers with you, they just help you along. We drove about 1000km yesterday and crossed North Dakota and then stayed overnight just as we crossed the border to South Dakota. Today we drove through South Dakota, Iowa and now we're almost at the southern border of Missouri and staying here overnight. We covered 1300km today so we have about another 1000km for tomorrow. It's really hard to drive a truck for so many hours in a row. It's uncomfortable, noisy, slow and VERY thirsty. We made it through Kansas city and St.Louis and tomorrow we'll probably drive through Arkansas and Tennessee and then finally to sweet home Alabama. Now I better go to bed and get some rest because the alarm clock will go off at just over six hours, which is by far the longest amount of sleep that I got in the past week or so. The weather here is extremely hot and humid. No wonder they call it tornado alley with those conditions, which make a perfect cocktail for powerful thunderstorms. I'll try to update again tomorrow. /GEA By the way: Thanks for all the emails and messages! I haven't replied to all of them yet, but I will try to. |
| Date | 06-08-2010 |
| Location |  |
| Message | (Friday 1335) Today's the big day. It's our graduation day. This morning we flew a six ship formation for the families and it was so awesome. Originally we were supposed to be in the back seat with the instructor in the front but some of us got to sit in the front, myself included. So we took off in two 3-ship elements. I flew the takeoff and it was probably one of my better ones. I was just fully concentrated. Then we flew out to the area and did some nice manoeuvring on the wing, still in 3-ship elements. We banked all the way up to 120 degrees and pulled over 3g in the turns so it was hard work to stay in position, but the 120's are actually much easier in the Hawk than they were in the Harvard. In about 15 minutes we (the Danes) will get promoted to Lieutenants and then at 1530 we have the graduation ceremony where we get our wings. Then at 1830 we have the graduation dinner and we'll party on throughout the night. That's that for now. The road to my wings has reached its destination - and on Sunday a new one begins. /GEA |
Page 7 of 98 << First < 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > Last >>